Queen Beatrix’s 50th state visit of her reign began on Sunday in Abu Dhabi with a visit to the biggest mosque in the United Arab Emirates.

The queen and princess Maxima both wore long gowns and covered their heads for the visit to the Sheikh Zayed grand mosque, the queen tucking a blue headscarf around her hat.

Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-Islam PVV, used the microblogging service Twitter to describe the queen’s appearance as ‘sad’ and asked why the government had not stopped this happening.

A spokesman for the state information service said the queen and Maxima covered their heads while in the mosque to show respect for the UAE’s traditions. The queen always adapts to traditions in the countries she visits, the spokesman is quoted as saying by the Volkskrant.

I’m not sure about the point of this. In an Arab country, when visiting, of course – if you choose to visit a Mosque, then you would observe the religious dress code appropriate to your visitation. It bears no difference to the dress code observed when visiting the Holy Father.

Personally, I would probably choose not to visit a Mosque, but when on ‘State’ or ‘Official’ visits I doubt the person concerned has much input.

Whippy: I have visited mosques in a purely touristic way,and ensured I was dressed according to local convention (drew the line at a Burka though) and have seen some very beautiful examples of Arab architecture – but why would I want to visit a mosque for any other reason? If Our Lord was present in the Tabernacle, then…….